Familiar, but not quite
by TieDjee
Summary: One-shot: An expansion on the 'breathing' scene of the destroy ending of Mass Effect 3 with John Shepard and Liara T'Soni. I got the idea of somebody's fanart (from Deviantart by 'Renegad3Spectre'.) Oh, and there's a little bit of Garrus and Tali, I hope you like it! (Not my best summary.)


**Familiar, but not quite**

It was over, the Reapers are gone. In the last battle on earth one man managed to bring an end to the supposed endless cycle, by bringing the whole Crucible down while he was still on it. After the confirmed end of the Reapers search parties were deployed to find all missing personnel, including those who could be in the wreckage of the Crucible which had plummeted towards the ground of earth.

"BWAFF!" As another metal support balk hit the ground after being pushed away.

A blue dim light shone through the mess of collapsed walls and constructions, for a moment a finger obscured the light's path.

"Damn, this isn't gonna work." Moving his finger alongside his blue single-eye visor until it reached his ear he pressed it for communication. "Tali, any updates on those streetlights?"

"Sorry Garrus, without the power stations they're busy deploying emergency generators, until that is settled we can't even try to activate the remaining streetlights." Came the reply.

"Don't be, it's not like it's your fault." Garrus replied in an affectionate voice before turning serious again: "Any luck with the reports regarding the collision course of the Crucible?"

"Ah, come on, where is it? Bosh'tet! Ah, here it is, according to the latest calculations the top half of the Crucible should be roughly 30 meters northeast ahead of you."

"Thank you Ta-" "BWAFF! BWAFF!" Garrus was interrupted by the sound of falling balks and rubble caused by an Asari who was trying to plow through the rubble in a dangerous manner as soon as she heard the coordinates.

Letting out a deep breath Garrus shook his head with pity at the Asari, walking up towards her he put his hand on her shoulder.

"Liara listen, Shepard is my friend too…" Garrus began. "No, that isn't correct." He paused and Liara stopped for a moment to hear what he had to say. "We all care about him, and you do the most, you and Shepard were more than just comrades, friends and boy- and girlfriend. It's obvious in the way you to act around each other, not to mention the noises coming from his cabin whenever you don't sleep in yours, but we-"

Liara interrupted with a gasp, not because of what Garrus had said, but of what she saw, she jerked away from Garrus' hand on her shoulder and dashed towards her goal.

Abandoning his speech Garrus went after her, coming to a stop he saw Liara hugging what looked like a human body, she was crying into the shoulder of the person laying there. Looking at the face, he was a little shocked, it was the familiar face of Shepard, but not quite, it wasn't exactly in the best of conditions. Half his face was charred black by the grime and red glowing scars were visible again from his Cerberus operation. Shepard's armor was all but gone, nothing had remained on his arms, there was a little bit visible on his legs, but not much. His chest plate had been burned off so bad you could see his old N7-tags and his clothes he wore under his armor burned completely black by probably the fiery explosion, but it was slowly turning red… Blood, it was flowing profoundly out of his body at multiple places; face, stomach, legs and more…

Garrus started to get an uneasy feeling, seeing Shepard like this combined with the fact he didn't react and with that it looked like he didn't move at all. He looked at Liara he noticed that she through her tears she wore a smile of happiness. Looking back at the body he got wide-eyed, you had to strain your eyes to see the movement, but you could see that his chest went up and down. Liara didn't say anything, she was to full of emotions to, but anyone could see the relief in her posture, seeing her pull one of Shepard's arms over her shoulder he bent down to help her.

"Good to see you in one piece Shepard." Garrus said in relief, slinging Shepard's left arm over his shoulder, to help him escort him to a camp, but upon hearing no reaction and the limp state of his body Garrus called for a stretcher to transport him.

As they were walking next to the stretcher to make their way back: "Hey hang in there buddy, I know we said we would see each other at the bar, but before you go to the one we talked about, let's fix you up and live a long live off the royalties from the vids eh?" Garrus half joked, he knew Shepard was tough, but seeing him in this state he wasn't 100 percent certain what to think anymore…

They just had to hope for the best.

 **(Shepard POV)**

 _Later (unknown how much):_

It felt like I just woke up, but everything was still black, I tried to open my eyes, but before I could I was already blinded by whiteness. I think I hear some people talk, I try to listen to what they're saying:

"-n't know what to think, I mean, he isn't de- … -ey! Look at this, he is showing an awareness of his surroundings. I think he's waking up. Come on, let's try to keep hi-" Man, even listening is difficult, I missed pieces.

But from what I gathered I got reminded from when Cerberus was trying to put me back together. This sounded familiar, but not quite, I mean we blew Cerberus up, but just the thought alone… Argh! I could feel the headache coming, literally, as my brain came back up black again…

 _Moment of consciousness nr. 02:_

I felt something cold being applied on my cheek, after that something scraped it off me, it was then that I knew it was shaving cream. I don't know how much time past since the last time I regained some senses, but apparently long enough that it was time for a shave.

"-erstood, we will keep him on life support as long as it takes so long his condition doesn't worsen, or the Normandy crew democratically votes otherw-"

Damn those headaches… Blackness…

 _Moment of consciousness nr. 11:_

With the return of the white I heard someone talk to me:

" -epard, please! *cry* We want you to come back. *cry…*"

"Please ma'am, this isn't doing you any good while- …"

Liara, please don't cry.

Liara, I let out a small laugh in my mind, who would have thought that thanks to the Reapers I would find someone to love and be loved back by? I guess that even the greatest of threats come with new good things, without the Reapers I probably would never have met her and spent the rest of my life being busy in the military like Anderson. Anderson, why did he have to die? Why couldn't I save him? He and his squad saved me when slavers attacked me and my family, even when he couldn't save everyone he did save me. I still wish I could've saved him, I'm not perfect, I know that, maybe that's what he meant, that I did good. I will make sure they won't forget the important part you played in the defeat of the Reapers. Right now however, all I can do is hope that Anderson as well as my family are happy wherever they are now, but I must stop looking at the past and figure out how to stay awa…

 _Moment of consciousness nr. 15:_

I've heard some people come in and speak to me, aside from Liara, Garrus and Tali, I now know that Ahsley, Samara, James and Joker made it as well.

"-erberus. Yes I know that we've fought them, but this ex-officer woman says she has firsthand experience in medically treating Shepard. We can't having him just keep popping in and out, now ca-"

And that sounds like Miranda, apparently she made it too, I mean I don't know anyone else who could fit the description.

I felt myself get tired as the blackness visited me once more and those headaches don't make it any easier…

 _Moment of consciousness nr. 24:_

I've felt a few more times the cold shaving cream being applied to me and have heard the doctors talk some medical conversations about me. I've no idea how long I've been laying here, but what is taking them so long? I'm not that dead-like, am I?

"-e appreciated you being here, but now the patient need to rest again"

"Rest? Hmpf! If you ask me we should just get the Asari naked in front of him, he would be up jumping on top of her in no time. Hell I think he would be even happier to see her while she i- … -his. Tell him when he wakes up that he, me and Grunt have to who kille-"

Heh, sounds like Wrex and Grunt made it too, that's good to hea…

 _Moment of consciousness nr. 36:_

I 'saw' the blackness being pushed aside again. Let's see what the station has playing this time:

"-epard, it's me, Garrus. Me and Ta- ... -we want you to be there,- … -ithout my best man, now can I? Well, best of lu…-"

Man, my reception sucks, I would have grinned if I could feel the rest of my face, not at my 'joke' if you want to call it that, but at Garrus and I presume Tali. Aboard the Normandy along with all our comrades there is romance to be found. Maybe we can have a Normandy's-couples-day-out, speaking of cou-Argh! Here we go again, as I was drifting off I got out one last thought: I hope Liara is doing well…

 _Moment of consciousness nr. 49:_

I felt a pressure on my chest, like somebody put something there. Wait, what's this? The pressure divided into four smaller places of pressure… Now one is gone, oh wait, now it's back, but it's on another place? Now another one… gone… and now back on another spot on my chest.

Again…

And again.

Now it had stopped…

Then I heard it:

"Ga-haa!"

Is that some kind of laugh? I don't know how or why, but something about that sound awoke a part in my brain in the area that caused my headaches and the black curtain which sometimes blew open was now permanently open. Opening my eyes I came face to face with an Asari's face, it wasn't Liara's, it looked familiar to hers, but not quite, the face in front of me reminded me of a baby.

That's it, it is an Asari baby, but what was she doing on top of me, why was she even here? Did one of the nurses participate at a take-your-daughter-to-work-day?

I tried to look around to see if her mother was nearby, so after I tilted my head a bit to the right to look past the baby Asari, when I see Liara sitting in the chair in the corner of the room absentmindedly staring at us.

For a moment my brain came up blank, after registering everything I looked back at the little girl who was still on top of me.

Is she… we… our…?

Looking back at Liara I tried to speak to her, but I could only get a grunt out.

 **(Liara POV)**

I was just staring at little Benezia crawl over her daddy's chest after I let her go after putting her there. I heard her laugh, it feels good to hear that, these past years weren't exactly the best for our galaxy. It feels good to know that now everyone has a reason to be happy again and can try to live normally without the threatening danger looming on the horizon.

Danger, being with John wasn't exactly one of the healthiest choices one can make, but I'm glad I did. The Reapers brought a lot of danger with all the seemingly endless death and destruction, but it did cause a few good things to happen:

\- Bringing together the greatest group of comrades and friends one can wish for.

\- Prevented the extinction of multiple races; the Krogan by curing the genophage, the Rachni…

\- Uniting everyone to prevent everybody else from extinction.

\- And our baby daughter of course.

I blush as I counted that last one and how that came to be, being intimate was a great feeling of loving someone who loves you in return, just like the first time before we hit the Mu relay to stop Saren, but it has another effect:

When the Normandy exploded I felt like a piece of myself died with him, luckily Cerberus managed to bring him back, one of the rare good deeds they have done. Only hear that the Crucible started to explode with him still on it, the feeling was familiar, but not quite, we managed to find him and stabilize him instead of having to bring him back from the dead. Plus, instead of losing a little piece of myself, I had company consisting half of him.

But shortly after her laugh I heard something else, something definitely not coming from the baby, something like a grunt. I looked over at the duo I care the most for in this entire galaxy and met two pair of blue eyes questioning me, one of my daughter and the other of her father who for the past months didn't react to anything.

At first I couldn't believe it, for months we tried to get Shepard to react and now one laugh of our newly born daughter did what we could not.

I couldn't help it but wanting to laugh myself from happiness as I started to get out of my chair. I saw the unasked question in his eyes, he knew it, but wanted me to confirm. With a smile I nodded, I walked over to him and pressed my lips on his own, I felt his lips moving against mine, but before he could try to go further I pulled back. I looked over to our daughter to see her reaction at seeing her father for the first time. The look she gave me was adorable, she had tilted her head to one side and was still looking at me with a questioning look.

So I answered her: "Mommy loves this man very much and he helped bringing you here, isn't that right Shepard?"

 **(Narrator POV again)**

"Zzzzzzzzz…"

Shortly after regaining his consciousness Shepard felt the fatigue of the Reaper war wash over him.

Liara looked from her daughter's face back towards Shepard's, his eyes were closed again, but there was a content smile on his face. Looking towards the monitors she saw that the brain-activity-one had risen from almost zero and settled at the steady and stable level which meant just sleeping. She was happy beyond belief, finally Shepard was awake from his 'coma' and even if one of the first things he did is sleeping, she didn't mind. Picking their daughter up she made her way towards the door, but she stepped through it she casts one last glance at her love.

Liara walked out of the room carrying their daughter in her arms, with a big smile on her face, she couldn't wait to bring the news to the rest of the crew. After all this time Shepard was back again and like before the last battle against the Reapers, Liara and Shepard would be together again.

(Liara POV:) _'It would be familiar again, well not quite, it's after all no longer just the two of us._

Fin.

(I got the idea for this fanfiction from Deviantart, the piece is made by "Renegad3Spectre" and it's called "Say hello".)


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